


Friendly Fire

by joan_waterhouse



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Hogwarts Eighth Year, Homework, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-11
Updated: 2010-07-11
Packaged: 2017-10-17 12:38:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/176933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joan_waterhouse/pseuds/joan_waterhouse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Draco is pyrophobic, Harry is tired of his celebrity status,  and doing homework together for <i>Theoretics of Advanced Spell Methodology</i> leads to all sorts of messy new insights.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friendly Fire

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://nursedarry.livejournal.com/profile)[**nursedarry**](http://nursedarry.livejournal.com/)'s prompt at the 2010 [](http://community.livejournal.com/hd_smoochfest/profile)[**hd_smoochfest**](http://community.livejournal.com/hd_smoochfest/).

## Friendly Fire

The first thing to heal had been the bruises on his knees. Then had followed the wounds on his arms, and soon all that was left of the war were the faint scars on Draco's chest and a deeply rooted feeling of anxiety and disorientation.

Everything felt different now. Draco felt so much older; his Slytherin robe seemed plainer; the Great Hall looked smaller and was far too bright. Oh Merlin, was the Great Hall bright. Had there always been so many candles in Hogwarts? He supposed there must have been, but he had never noticed them before. Now he had to try hard to notice anything else.

Draco didn't hold court in the centre of the Slytherin table like he used to. Instead, he took his place at the side, near the door and away from the candelabras. He kept his eyes down and tried to focus on the plate, tried to think about food and nothing else. Tonight they had roast chicken. Draco's pulse sped up at the word 'roast' and what it entailed. He concentrated on the salad instead. The others were already speculating about possible desserts by the time Draco had finally collected himself enough to take a first bite.

Right next to him, a bowl of ice cream flambé popped into existence. Pansy clapped her hands in joy. Atop a colourful mountain of ice cream danced and flickered faint blue flames. Draco started to panic. His mind filled up with images of fiery Chimaeras, burning serpents, flaming dragons, smoke, smoke, so much smoke. It was getting hard to breathe. He instinctively searched for Potter.

Because this was how Draco could always calm himself down. This was how the nightmares would dissolve. In his mind's eye, Harry Potter would reach out a hand, draw Draco up unto his broom, and fly him away to a place where he could breathe again.

Draco was fully aware of how pathetic he must sound, but it was either having a full blown panic attack in the middle of the Great Hall or pushing his pride aside and keeping his eyes firmly on the bloody Boy Who Saved Him from the Fiendfyre.

Draco took another deep breath, excused himself with a quick, "I'm really not that hungry" and left the Great Hall before his own dessert arrived and things got really embarrassing.

~~~

 _Theoretics of Advanced Spell Methodology_ was a new subject, introduced to keep those who repeated their seventh year from having too much spare time. It had quickly become Harry's favourite class. Yes, it was utterly boring, but it was also so complex and needed so much concentration that no one had the time to slip Harry soppy love letters. There were no hands-on exercises in which the other students could try to impress _their hero_ in ever more idiotic ways.

A world without Voldemort was all very well and good, but a world where Harry Potter could walk freely without being bothered by his fans and followers had its merits too. And that's what TASM provided: one hour of quiet, focussed studying. It was bliss.

"… so you see, by extending the methods we use for non-verbal spells, we can even go one step further. I will now levitate this notebook, but out loud I will speak the wrong incantation. Observe!" Professor Kozlovsky raised his wand. "Aguamenti!" The book hovered - completely dry - in mid air.

Muttered surprise filled the classroom; Harry was just awake enough to be impressed himself.

"For next week you will complete Experiment Four, which you can find on page 37, and write down your observations. For this you all need to find a study partner."

And so, TASM suddenly lost its place as Harry's favourite class. No sooner had the words "study partner" been spoken than Harry was besieged by a crowd of students. O.W.L. grades were shouted as credentials by the more inventive among them, others resorted to a steady sing-song of "Pick me! Pick me! Pick me!"

Harry had no hope of being saved by one of his friends. Seamus and Dean, Neville and Luna, and, of course, Ron and Hermione were well established pairs. There was not a chance in hell that one of them would change their minds.

Over the heads of excitedly bustling admirers, Harry could see a few more students. All but one of them was already paired with someone else. Alone in the front row, idly tapping a quill against his ink pot, his white-blond hair flopped over his eyes sat Draco Malfoy. Harry didn't even think twice about it. He parted the crowd with one wave of his hand and made his way towards his new study partner.

~~~

  
EXPERIMENT FOUR  
1)  
a. Choose a simple spell (e.g. Levitation of Objects).  
b. Perform this spell non verbally.  
c. Describe to your partner the inner monologue you utilised for performing this spell.  
d. Write down the outcome of c.

2)  
a. Choose a second spell different from the one in part 1) (e.g. Aguamenti).  
b. Vocalise its incantation with a clear mind. The goal is to clear your mind so thoroughly that you can speak the incantation without it having any effect whatsoever.  
c. If this spell proves to activate after all, put down your wand and try again.

3)  
a. Your parter will now read your written monologue out to you (see: Step 1) d.). It is vital that he/she doesn't stop.  
b. Concentrate on the spell you chose in Step 1). Start thinking along with the inner monologue your partner is reading out.  
c. Simultaneously vocalise the incantation of the Spell you chose in Step 2) and cast the Spell you chose in Step 1).  


~~~

Harry and Malfoy had found a quiet place in the library's rarely used foreign language section. Step One of the experiment had gone well. Harry had discovered that he thought about clouds and feathers when he cast Wingardium Leviosa and had even reluctantly admitted to Malfoy that, yes, the clouds had to be fluffy. Step two hadn't been a problem either, since it was essentially an exercise in doing nothing. The experiment had only got interesting once they had started working on Step Three.

The way Malfoy fixed Harry with his smoky grey eyes made it really hard to concentrate, and Harry's ability to focus was pretty mediocre under the best of circumstances. It was probable, that the reason for Step Three going wrong had been the resemblance Malfoy's eyes bore to the lake on a stormy day. It was conceivable, maybe, that thinking about the lake had lead to thinking about Malfoy _in_ the lake. And that in its turn might have, if Harry was completely honest with himself, led to speculating about how Malfoy would look drenched in water. How delicious indeed it would be to watch it running down Malfoy's neck, to see it briefly pooling at his wonderfully outlined collarbones.

In conclusion, it was not entirely surprising that thinking so keenly about water while saying 'Aguamenti' would lead to water being spilled. And there weren't many things worse then water being spilled in a library. Well, maybe except for what happened next.

~~~

Draco wasn't sure how exactly it had gone wrong. He had listened intently to Potter's calm voice reciting words about weightlessness and airy heights, he really had. He had concentrated on things to do with hovering, had looked into Potter's green eyes and conjured mental images of Levitation, elevation, soaring, flying, being swept away into the air, rising up over dangerous landscapes, holding tight to the one person who can bring you to safety, and then, out of no fault of his own, instead of his TASM textbook rising into the air, it had been as if a fire had started inside of Draco.

The flames had started small, deep inside his own belly. It wasn't anything like his usual nightmares; it wasn't menacing at all. Draco was strangely in control, he himself let the flames rise up and lick at his heart. His whole body was aglow with this new kind of heat, it pulsed through his every vein. This new, friendly fire demanded to be spread, was not satisfied to reside inside Draco's body alone. He could practically feel how sparks had started to leap over and ignite Potter as well.

Then two things happened at once. First, Draco saw out of the corner of his eye that his textbook had started to smoulder. Second, the fire inside him rose up and turned into a full blown blaze. He felt Potter's hand on his arm, Potter's breath on his face.

Accidentally burning a book inside a library wasn't nearly as terrifying as suddenly realising that Harry Potter was about to kiss you.

Potter's lips were hot. They pressed firmly against Draco's mouth and Draco had no intention whatsoever to deny them what they wanted; he parted his lips. With a sigh Potter pressed even closer, pushed Draco hard against the shelf behind him. Potter's thigh had found its way between Draco's legs and Draco was just about to sneak his hand around Potter's hips, when the loud bang of books crashing down beside them made Draco aware that they were still, in fact, in the library.

There were puddles on the floor, the whole of sections _Bulgarian_ to _Korean_ needed re-shelving, Draco's textbook was reduced to a pile of ashes and they would probably get a stern talking to from Headmistress McGonagall, but somehow Draco couldn't bring himself to care. If you asked him, Experiment Four had been a success, and he would now proceed to explore his new found insights further.

~ end ~


End file.
